the reel ess

Thanks @A-Jay. What's the biggest bass you've caught there? What can be expected?

I know some of you have gone to Mexican trophy bass lakes before. I want to plan a bucket list trip around my 50th birthday, which is 2 years and a month away. I have a few questions. What's the best time of year to catch a huge bass? Is there a "topwater season" ?? Is one lake better than others? Is it family friendly? My wife and daughter don't like to fish. Is there anything else around for them to do if they go along? Is it safe? Mexico isn't known for being a particularly safe travel destination lately. How long did you stay and how were the accommodations? Thanks in advance.

I use 20 lb. PowerPro. But looking at all the replies that use 15 lb. I may be going that route next time. 20 lb. is about the diameter of 8 lb mono. Given the underwater visibility of black or green braid, especially when it has some age on it, I don't see any reason to go much lighter. I use a mono leader for some baits for visibility reasons. It's not clear enough around here to warrant dealing with fluoro. I see a lot of pros using hi-vis yellow braid to help them detect bites. I may go that way as well next time. When you're wacky rigging you'd like to see the bite before you feel it to avoid fish swallowing hooks.

Something I keep meaning to do but just never seem to get around to it. I have a good assortment of bream and bass poppers.

I'll sometimes have a buzzbait tied on and when they either stop biting it or won't, I'll switch to a spinnerbait. On my topwater/crankbaits rod, I'll use a (good quality) snap to be able to quickly switch to a lipless crank or other subsurface lure on that rod. I take the baits I might want to switch to in the kayak with me. At my buddy's place, I just leave them on his dock and after an unsuccessful trip around his 4 acre pond, I'll just switch out baits without getting out of the water.

I'd rather catch one 2 pounder on top than two 3 pounders on bottom. As my dad would say, I'm "plumb eat up" with topwater fishing. The frog, popper and walking baits are my standby's followed by buzzbaits, prop baits and critters like the SPRO Rat. I've gone to my buddy's pond with 5 topwaters tied on, intent upon catching bass only on topwaters that trip. I have a couple of dedicated combos for topwaters. I've found that topwater action is better for longer periods of the day if the average depth of a body of water is shallower. ie: Pond fish are more apt to go for the topwater. I guess that's because they spend their life looking up. They can't choose to get in a very deep habitat. That might be why I prefer to catch a few bass over a lot of panfish, which is possible at my favorite fishing hole. I time my trips around the topwater bite (very early or late). My buddy will send me a pic of a cooler full of crappie and bream and say the bass weren't biting. But then I'll go anyway and bass fish and do whatever it takes to catch a few, hopefully on top. Even when i do fish for panfish, I do it the bass fishing way: cast and retrieve, repeat.

Ever notice how it looks when you reel in a bass on a spinnerbait or a soft plastic where the bait has slipped up the line? It looks like the bass is chasing a meal. It looks that way to other fish as well. If they're really turned on, they're competing for a finite volume of prey so they go after what they see; the same reason people catch doubles on lures with multiple hooks. Their brains are too small to understand the whole experience for the other hooked bass is not a pleasant one.

Somebody with that much disregard for wildlife might not have a valid license. You could call your DNR and report them. Somebody might get out in time to check on it. Or they might make it a point to increase visits to the location. I was talking to a local moron the other day who was bragging about catching and keeping more than the limit of stripers at the local lake. He said a game warden walked over to him and checked his license but couldn't see his stringer because of the rocky shore. It's a put-and-take fishery so the limit is 10, not 5 as on the rivers where they reproduce. I said "Why didn't you just keep 10 and release the rest?" He just looked at me like I was stupid. Ten 5 lb fish is plenty of meat for one person.

20 lbs/acre/year is a rule of thumb for harvesting. But if it's way out of balance, then you'd need to take more. You need to feed the bluegills before and during spawn so they spawn more and make more eggs. Then your bass will have another small forage. It's really hard for just a few people to keep enough bass to keep it in balance and stunted bass populations in ponds are extremely common. I have 4 small ponds (under 5 acres) that I frequently fish. Only one has really big, or even a healthy average size bass in it. One of the others has a concrete weir type spillway and it sometimes floods and loses some fish. It has a better average than the other two ponds. They're just full of dinks. Those bass have bellies that look concaved. Keep everything you catch unless it's a trophy or even a trophy in the making. Invite others over to keep what they catch. Short of the shocking survey/removal, that's the best thing you can do.

I frog fish a lot. This is what I have. I paid $100 for it, but right now it's on sale at $79.99. I've been using it for a few years now and I highly recommend it. And you'll still have $40 in your pocket for some really cool frogs. You can spend more, but you won't get much more of a frog rod for your money. Now, if you want the rod to pull double duty and be used for another technique, this is not the rod for you. It's stiff as a pool cue and that's necessary for getting the bass turned your way and dragging them out of vegetation. https://www.cabelas.com/product/fishing/fishing-rods/casting-rods/pc/104793480/c/104764680/sc/104823180/cabelas-tournament-zx-bass-casting-rods/1619298.uts?slotId=2

If you were in BPS or Cabela's and you wanted a reel they have as part of a combo deal, but you didn't want the run-of-the-mill 6'6" MH rod, you could ask them to switch the rods for another action and power of the same line of rods for the combo price. They probably would do it, especially if at least one of the pieces was their brand.

Then he traded it in on a Corolla. LOL

And sometimes it's too d**n hot to catch fish. LOL. I went this morning and caught a dink bass and two crappies (I was bass fishing) after paddling all over a 35 acre reservoir. I had to resort to casting a Cordell Spot toward the deepest areas, letting it sink to the bottom and reeling as slowly as possible to catch those. But I've been on lockdown because my wife's 90 yr old dad has been with us for 3 1/2 weeks and he's a full-time job. 1 1/2 more weeks to go.

It looks like Savage gear has come out with yet another lure I could use for 2 straight summers without single a bite. On the other hand, I didn't think the SPRO Rat would work for me and it has. I feel like the Rat will do everything this snake does. It's a critter that ash the unmitigated audacity to swim right through the bass's domain. That won't be long tolerated.

One of my favorite baits is a craw on a plain weedless Arky head. it flat out gets bites and the bait lasts a lot longer than it will on a T rig.

There are probably craws there. I fished a lake down here and didn't see a craw for 30 years until I saw a claw protruding from a bass's "posterior". Come to think of it, I don't see craws anywhere I fish. I use craws everywhere I fish and bass bite 'em. For that matter, I don't see worms swimming anywhere either.

Well, he caught fish after fish on them. I'm sure they're fine. I like Zoom and Mann's Hardnose. But I feel certain I could catch bass on the Shadee Shad.

The more things change, the more they never seem the same.

Would depend on which I was in the market for.

Second the Mann's Hardnose. The nose is tough as nails and one will last a long time.

CC Spots? That's my favorite lipless. But to be really old school, you'd have to pull out the Bayou Boogie. It's still being made. https://www.heddonlures.com/product/bayou-boogie-3/

I've been fishing almost 40 years. Every time I think I'm good at fishing and I've figured something out, they show me otherwise. As @EGbassing said, the T rig is just the ticket for gaining confidence. For the longest time, it's all I ever fished on my Zebco 33. And I still can tie it on and expect some action even when bass are sulking.

@cadman @Munkin Thanks guys.

If you have a favorite spinnerbait (War Eagle Gold-Gold Shiner) and you wanted to replace the smooth gold blades with hammered ones, how would you know you were buying the exact same size? And from whom would you order them? Thanks in advance.

Great quality brand. I don't have that particular model, but my favorite SB is their double willow leaf, 3/8 oz. in gold shiner pattern.